Khaldun Aburok is a Swiss National with a strong technological background. His role at Farnek is to develop business for the company’s innovative, smart and sustainable total facilities management services throughout the UAE.
After joining Farnek in 2020, Khaldun Aburok has helped Farnek secure hundreds of new projects and played an integral role in enhancing the company’s revenue growth. His key objective is to provide smart and green FM solutions to address the issues faced by potential and existing clients.
Explain your background and that of the company in more detail.
Established in 1980, Swiss-owned and managed Farnek, has grown exponentially and developed into one of UAE’s foremost Total Facilities Management (TFM) companies, a market leader in the field of smart FM technology and sustainability.
Our highly skilled workforce has grown to over 8,000 employees, and we now have a presence and reach across all seven Emirates in the UAE.
Currently, we offer professional FM services on behalf of blue-chip organizations such as Dubai Airport, DU, Etihad Airways, Emaar’s Dubai Mall, The Opportunity district of EXPO2020, and more than 10 EXPO Pavilions. One of our most significant achievements was securing the contract to provide MEP services for the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which we have retained since its opening in 2010.
We are also a leader in sustainability and a member of the Emirates Green Building Council and associations with international organizations such as Green Globe and earlier this year joined forces with Munich-based ClimatePartner.
More recently we acquired a hotel management trade license which was quickly followed by our first hospitality project, managing the front office operation for the 2,200 hotel apartments at Expo Village.
I was appointed as Director of Business Development for Farnek Services at the beginning of 2020. I graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and IT. Originally, I carved out a successful career in building and industrial automation before joining Farnek. I also hold an MBA focusing on strategic and executive management and previously I worked in the research department, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.
I have a great deal of engineering sales experience, both in the UAE and in Europe, and prior to Farnek my business development experience included a senior role as regional sales manager (MENA), heading up the Dubai branch office of a major Japanese corporation, OMRON Group, a global leader in automation, reporting into their regional HQ for EMEA in Amsterdam. I was awarded the brave award for increasing Omron’s revenue by 130% within the MENA region.
Since Feb 2020, leading the business development team, Farnek has secured more than a hundred new projects in the UAE worth in excess of AED 350 million with an accent on quality management and building solid client relationships.
Khaldun Aburok, what are your goals?
I am keen on understanding facility issues and providing solutions driven by excellent service delivery. Smart and green business strategies are clearly the way forward and not only in facilities management. We also target the implementation of our own hotel management solutions with our Flexi-Guest App to improve operational efficiency and to reduce carbon emissions. HITEK (our command center combined with AI) is Farnek’s standard cost-effective proposition to enhance service efficiency.
We strive to work smart and to be green in our approach. With our innovative solutions, we aim to create a positive impact on the environment, fulfill the needs of our customers and provide business intelligence to their businesses by being a partner rather than just being a service provider.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
Farnek has over 40 years of experience in facilities management and enjoys partnerships with world-renowned clients in many sectors; government, educational, residential, retail, logistics, healthcare, aviation, and more. With a diverse workforce of 8,000 employees, which includes more than 50 nationalities, we understand the impact of culture on our business and made a conscious transition from classic to smart and green facilities management.
I acquired extensive technical experience and grew up in a country with a strong awareness of the environment, which I have successfully combined with a robust leadership approach.
We have invested over AED 200 million in Farnek Village in Dubai DIP, providing more than 5,000 beds for our staff. Our state-of-the-art staff accommodation center offers all possible amenities, including a training center, a fitness center, a leisure room, shops, a pharmacy, a clinic, and a 240 sqm roof-top vertical garden that produces over 3,000 leafy greens each harvest.
Khaldun Aburok, what was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
Since its establishment, Farnek has evolved from classic FM into smart total facilities management, including cleaning services, maintenance services, security services, and hotel management. At present, we can manage an entire facility with our in-house expertise and provide the most advanced, home-grown technologies to provide innovative solutions for the FM industry. Recently we launched the Farnek CAFM system and our HITEK, Farnek’s monitoring and command center, that connects all our technologies such as the smart washroom, smartwatches, IoT sensors, and more.
Khaldun Aburok, why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company? Why did you join Farnek?
Farnek enjoys an excellent reputation and provides extensive market experience. Facilities management was a new field to me, where I could see many possibilities. I know about business development, strategic management, technology, building, and industrial automation, combined with my out-of-the-box thinking. My knowledge, together with a company like Farnek that shares my ambition to step into a new future, we can raise the bar for facilities management service delivery. I was excited about this challenge and still am every day. I am confident Farnek’s vision will positively impact both corporate and my personal growth.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Change can be uncomfortable; a step into a new direction, developing something new is often daunting for some. This was magnified when you consider I was joining a new company and had limited experience in the FM industry, with the pandemic looming on the horizon. It was a challenge developing business during one of the most demanding environments the world has faced in recent decades, combined with managing a new team.
Today, besides the outstanding business development performance, we have a retention rate of above 95% with our existing clients. They are confident that our solutions-based approach and sound business intelligence impact their operations positively. Quite an achievement and a real team effort!
Khaldun Aburok, Give us one word that describes you the best.
Galvanising.
What makes you excited about Sundays?
Well, on Sunday mornings, I enjoy meeting with the team to discuss our sales plan for the week ahead. The second thing is that the entire department enjoys lunch together on Thursdays, which helps to develop good team spirit and affords us an opportunity to review our weekly performance as well.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
Respect and teamwork. I have created a Samurai culture within my team. We support each other, face challenges together and succeed together. We understand and learn from our mistakes. We also share our experiences with one another.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
During the pandemic, we have seen many customers who suffered from cash flow issues and their only way to save costs was by trying to reduce their expenses aggressively or in some cases even terminate the contract. Well, reducing cost aggressively will, over time, harm the quality, so Farnek responded by developing HITEK to address these concerns.
HITEK is our operational ‘nerve centre’ that enables us to take advantage of connecting all assets from several sites so that they can be centrally monitored and managed. While we reduce response time, we save costs on many other aspects including the workforce. Recently we achieved a reduction of 70% of costs on BMS and chiller operations alone. Our staff are our greatest asset, and with HITEK we optimise our workforce and work smarter.
What are your company’s strategies, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
Farnek is all about innovation and sustainability. We regularly win prestigious FM, technology, and sustainability awards. We provide excellent facilities management and hospitality services to many of the UAE’s world-class projects throughout the seven emirates; Burj Khalifa since its opening, The Dubai Mall, EXPO 2020, The Dubai Airport, Yas Marine Circuit, Formula 1, to name just a few.
What are the key values that helped you overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career?
I can accept failure, but what I cannot accept is not trying. I simply believe that effort should never die, and I see FAIL as the First Attempt in Learning. Furthermore, I always remember my own “smile” strategy, which helps me personally to learn and to maximize my focus.
Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
Besides the formal role, leadership requires personal qualities. I can say that each success story we have enjoyed as a business development team was a memorable moment. But I am especially proud of the way they have embraced Farnek’s progressive management philosophy and acknowledged just how far we have grown together as a team.
Khaldun Aburok, how do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Our strategy will remain smart and green, providing a first-class service to our customers. We want them to benefit from innovative and inclusive solutions, enriching a tech-driven and sustainable partnership
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
As a partner, Farnek understands its client’s needs, we are not just a service provider! Besides all the innovative and green solutions that help our clients become more cost-efficient while improving our response time, we bring in business intelligence that can positively impact their business.
Given the fact, we have a highly trained and connected workforce, that enjoys genuine welfare, we can live and experience all of these innovations in our own state-of-the-art Farnek Village. Our clients will enjoy innovation in particular and a motivated team that is keen to provide real-time, competitive and service delivery excellence.
What services/solutions or products are offered by your company at par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
Farnek provides total facilities management services such as cleaning, maintenance, security, and hotel management services. Farnek provides advanced and in-house-developed technologies with which we connect with our workforce to save costs and reduce response time to our clients. Biometric systems, smart parking, smartwatches, smart washrooms, fleet management solutions, Farnek CAFM system, and many more advanced applications connected under HITEK, our 5G cloud-based and 24hr monitoring command center.
Farnek’s green credentials are beyond reproach, caring for the environment and informing all of its customers about the latest technology and techniques to reduce carbon emissions and save money on utility bills. Farnek provides hotel management, for which we have recently launched our Flexi-Guest app. Hotel guests enjoy a comprehensive green process (pre-check-in post-checkout) without printing a single paper and can use their phone to access their hotel room. The app can estimate the carbon emissions generated by any guest during their stay and provide a cost reduction should the guest wish to offset their carbon footprint